Transport strike paralyses Italy

Euronews

Transport throughout Italy is paralysed today by a one-day strike affecting tens of thousands of people. Unions called the stoppage to protest over budget cutbacks in the public sector. “In principle I agree with them. But it’s a shame that ordinary citizens, who have no share in the blame for this, have to suffer the consequences,” said one traveller.

Rail and local public transport nationwide has ground to a halt. One rail worker said he felt let down by the trade unions: “Today’s strike is all for show, it won’t change anything.”

“I think this joint strike action is excessive,” said one commuter. “It would be better to have separate stoppages on different days. What’s more, here in Rome, we have the taxi strike and it’s a complete mess.”

Chaos was brought to the capital Rome on Thursday when taxi drivers ground to a halt over plans to increase the number of cab licenses to meet demand.

Bus, ferry and motorway operators have also gone on strike, as well as Alitalia employees opposed to plans to overhaul the state-run airline.

The sale of a controlling stake in Alitalia is expected to involve at least 2,500 redundancies.